CRM, lead flow and sales techniques
A CRM can only report the selling you have already written down.
How enquiries are captured, scored, routed and followed up, how the numbers are reported, and the selling habits that make the record worth keeping.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Lead management and CRM work is the job of deciding how every enquiry is recorded, judged, passed on and followed up, then measuring it. This section sets out the rules, fields, reports and routines to settle first, and the selling techniques the record is meant to support.
Settle the rules before you pick the software. Most of these pages work in a shared sheet first and move into a CRM when the sheet becomes hard to search.
Topic 1
Sales enablement and the marketing-sales agreement.
What sales and marketing agree on so leads move cleanly between them.
- Sales enablement self assessmentScore your own sales set-up separately, then argue about the gaps in the scores.
- Vision to revenue goalCost the dream line by line and the revenue target stops being a guess.
- Buyer fit attributes and readiness signalsTwo lists decide who gets a call: who fits you, and who is ready to buy.
- Sales and marketing alignment meetingMeet monthly with one sheet of numbers and settle who owns each leaking lead.
- Lead target calculatorDivide the revenue goal backwards and you know how many leads a month to chase.
- Lead handoff agreementName the stages a lead moves through and who owns each one, in writing.
- Sales and marketing velocityMeasure revenue per rep per day, and leads per hour of marketing effort.
- Sales experiment logWrite down what you expect before you try it, so the result teaches you something.
Topic 2
Personas and positioning.
One shared description of the buyer and the promise.
- Shared buyer persona workshopBuild personas from fifteen real conversations, and name the buyer you do not want.
- Role based persona mappingLearn what the buyer's job description says before you write them an email.
- Hero customer statement and results promiseSay in one sentence who you are best for, and who you are not.
Topic 3
Inbound selling: identify.
Finding who to talk to.
- Lead source priority and inbound outbound mixSpend your selling hours on the lead sources that close, in order.
- Trigger event and common connection watchlistWatch for the events that make a buyer need you this month.
- Website visitor watch and lead enrichmentFind out which companies visit and who they are before you call.
Topic 4
Inbound selling: connect.
Opening the conversation.
Topic 5
Inbound selling: explore.
Learning the buyer's situation.
- Exploratory call rubricScore each first call on eleven steps so you qualify on evidence.
- Exploratory call openerOpen the first proper call with rapport, a recap and an agenda.
- Challenge library and needs question bankKeep the buyer's real problems in one library and ask from it.
- Buyer value quantifierPut a rupee figure on what the buyer wants and on what waiting costs them.
Topic 6
Inbound selling: advise.
Recommending a solution.
- Advisor style presentation deckBuild the deck around what the buyer said and leave your company history for last.
- Backward timeline plannerStart from the date the buyer needs the result and count back to the day they sign.
- Budget and purchase process confirmationAsk for the fee, the signer and the payment steps before the buyer leaves the room.
- Presentation delivery rulesRehearse five delivery rules so the buyer hears their own problem in your talk.
- Permissioned proof bankKeep customer stories you have written permission to use, with figures signed off.
Topic 7
Lead management.
Segmenting, qualifying, nurturing, scoring, routing and measuring leads inside the CRM.
- Lead management audit and mapTrace twenty real leads through five stages to see which ones work and which do not.
- Contact segments for lead managementTag every contact by stage, person and product, then pick one segment to work first.
- Fit and readiness qualification matrixSort every lead into one of six buckets by how well it fits and how ready it is.
- Lead nurture campaign planPlan one nurture path for one buyer type, from first interest to a sales conversation.
- Lead score points from close ratesGive points to the leads that closed before, not to the ones that look good.
- Fit interest and negative scoringScore fit and interest apart, then take points away for junk.
- Lead routing rulebook and automationDecide who gets each lead before the lead arrives.
- Follow up promise dashboardCount how fast the first call happens and how long the rep keeps trying.
- Lead KPIs and SQL feedbackTrack five or six lead numbers, and ask reps to rate every lead.
- Rejected and no decision lead reviewReview rejected leads with someone neutral, then bring the undecided back.
- Lead pacing planPlan how many leads arrive each week, based on how many your team can work.
Topic 8
CRM setup and data.
Configuring the CRM and keeping its data clean.
- CRM starter setupStart with one system, a handful of fields and five stages.
- CRM field designGive every data point a field type that reports can use.
- CRM data hygiene and taggingTest your database for accuracy, then tag every new enquiry on arrival.
- CRM import and naming standardDecide how a record is spelled before anyone imports the next file.
Topic 9
Sales reporting and dashboards.
Reports and dashboards that lead to action.
- Data readiness before reportingCheck the numbers are real before you build a report that quotes them.
- Report question and meaning templateStart every report from a question and end it with what someone will do.
- Core sales report packSeven reports, each carrying one line that says what to do next.
- Reporting audience and cadence mapGive each reader one report, on the day they read it.
- Dashboard design and chart choiceBuild the dashboard around one question and draw the charts honestly.
- Dashboard governanceDecide who owns each dashboard, who sees it, and when it gets deleted.
- Monthly business review packPut the month on the same six pages every time.
- Activity to revenue calculatorWork back from the revenue target to the calls each rep must make.
- Pipeline analytics and forecast categoriesRead the pipeline for what moved, what slipped and why deals were lost.
- Lead source tracking and channel metricsWrite down where every enquiry came from, on the day it arrives.
Topic 10
Frictionless selling.
Removing effort from reps and from buyers.
- Selling friction mapFind the phase of selling that is dragging before you add more leads.
- Rep time audit and activity filterCount the hours your reps spend selling, then move everything else.
- Sales tool stack reviewList every tool your reps touch before you buy another one.
- Lost deal pattern analysisLost deals repeat themselves, and the pattern is worth more than one story.
- Buyer friction checklistTry buying from your own business and write down every place you got stuck.
- Prospect to customer handover standardCapture what delivery needs on the first call, so nobody asks twice.
Topic 11
Content as a sales tool.
Content that reps use in live conversations.
- Buyer questions bankWrite down every question a buyer asks, then check who has answered it.
- Sales to content loopGive one person the job of turning what reps hear into what you publish.
- Price transparency pagePublish a price range, and say plainly what pushes it up or down.
- Assignment selling packSend the prospect homework before the meeting and note who did it.
- Sales library and content gap mapIf a rep cannot find the right file in a minute, you do not have a library.
- Stalled deal value touchesEvery stalled deal needs a reason to be contacted that is not a reminder.
- Sales writing checklistWrite the email in the buyer's language, then cut it by a third.
- Video first sellingA two-minute video from a real person gets a reply that a PDF does not.
- Sales content effectiveness reviewFind out which documents your team sends and which ones win orders.
Topic 12
Selling after the sale.
Onboarding, repeat business and retention as part of selling.
- Customer lifecycle milestonesName the moments after the sale and give each one an owner.
- Replace the old solution onboardingYour real competitor is the supplier or the register the customer already uses.
- Repeat purchase reminders and job tagsAsk when they will need you again, and write the date down with permission.
- Customer needs check in and feedback scoresVisit your key customers on a schedule and score how they feel.
- Acquisition vs retention costWork out what a new customer costs and what keeping an old one costs.
- Promise kept checkGo back months later and find out whether you delivered what you promised.
- Service recovery and support desk reviewFix customer problems the same day, on a number the whole team can see.
Topic 13
Inbound business strategy and alignment.
Company-level planning that keeps sales, marketing and service aligned.
- Purpose and culture statementSay why your business exists in words your counter staff can repeat.
- OKR cascadeTurn the year's goals into key results each team can move and score.
- Core, growth and new bets resource splitFind out how much of your time and money goes to what pays today.
- One page planPut the whole year on one page, including what you will not do.
- Inbound readiness and growth loop diagnosticRate how well you attract, engage and delight, then find where buyers drop off.
- Consistent answer bankWrite down one agreed answer to every question buyers ask about price and fit.
Before you start
Three things worth knowing about these topics.
Software records a process. It does not create one.
A CRM set up before the stages, owners and next-action rules are agreed will faithfully record a mess. Write the rules first and set the tool up to match.
A report is only as good as the field behind it.
If the lead source is optional, the report that says which channel works is a guess. Each dashboard in this section starts from the field it depends on.
Selling less, with less friction, is a design choice.
Time a rep spends on admin, searching for content or waiting for a handover is time not spent with buyers. The pages show how to find and remove it.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
Do we need a CRM to use this section?
Is this about one particular CRM?
How is this different from the sales process pages?
Can you set it up for us?
Related sections
Separate sections, each with its own topics.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.